' Steve Earle does not so much sympathise with the underdog as with the despised. In 2002 he caused a stink when he recorded a beautiful song called John Walker’s Blues. The controversy wasn’t simply that it was about jailed US Muslim convert and Taliban sympathiser John Walker Lindh, it was that Earle sang in the first person. That’s a brave thing to do, I say. “I guess so. I told Elvis Costello when I’d just got the idea for it and the chorus was ‘la ilaha illa Allah’ and he said: ‘You’re out of your mind, don’t do that’.” '

I've been reminded that today (July 24) is The Feast of St. Declan . . . a 5th Century Catholic Saint from whom EC got his name (or at least the family Priest who had the name). Devotion to St. Declan is still quite popular in Waterford.

The path walked by St. Declan from Ardmore to Cashel, County Tipperary has been restored as "St. Declan's Pilgrim Path, and an annual walk of the path, nicknamed the "Irish Camino", has begun today in earnest.

A round tower still stands at the site of St. Declan's monastery at Ardmore, as well as an earlier, small stone church.

Before the 1991 film (and more recent stage musical) there was the book The Commitments by Roddy Doyle. First published in Dublin in 1987 , the UK edition followed in 1988. I happened on a copy of the paperback edition in a charity shop today. It has a quote on the back from Elvis. Checking further I realised it is from a tv show Elvis took part in to promote the hardback of the UK edition. That show is , presumably , long gone. Which is a pity because an account I wrote at the time for the ECIS fanzine says it features footage of Elvis in a Dublin pub , discussing the book and drinking Guinness, about a year or so before he gave up alcohol.

'E.T.' at 35: Older bro Robert MacNaughton tells what 'D and D' at Harrison Ford's, 'Weird Al,' Elvis Costello had to do with it

Gwynne Watkins

August 11, 2017

(extract)

...One of the auditions was at Harrison Ford’s house because he and Melissa Mathison, who wrote the script, were together....

There’s also a scene where you walk into a room and you’re singing “Accidents Will Happen” By Elvis Costello.

[Pause] Yes. Now that was Melissa all the way. Because on the audition at Harrison’s house when I first got there, they were listening to the Elvis Costello album Trust. It’s funny because I’ve seen him probably about 15 times in concert, and I’ve loved all his music all through the years. But at that time I wasn’t familiar with his music. I was 14, but the year I was 13 I did like five plays and a bunch of TV movies. So I was always working from the time I was about 12, and I was just devoted to the stage. So the only music I knew was like, show tunes. [Laughs] So I didn’t know Elvis Costello at all. I knew who he was but I didn’t know his music. They gave me a tape like, the night before with the song.

Elvis Costello had a book signing recently, and my wife arranged for me to meet him beforehand. And the first thing I did was apologize. [Laughs] “I’m so sorry, I butchered the song, it’s a great song, I can’t sing and I wasn’t real familiar with the song!” But I told him how big of fans Melissa and Harrison were, and to a lesser extent Steven, because he wasn’t real into popular music either. He said, “Yeah, I didn’t think Steven was a fan.” [Laughs] But I said, “But he was there and he was listening to it, so he obviously didn’t hate it!” But yeah, that’s my only regret, is that I wish I would have done it kind of better.

The recent death of Bruce Forsyth, the UK beloved entertainer, reminded me that when I went to the book launch of EC's autobiography at the Royal Court theatre in Liverpool, board member Top Balcony asked a question about EC's many appearances at that theatre and if he had any special memories. Elvis replied that one of his earliest and best memories was seeing Bruce Forsyth in pantomime at the age of 9. I am sure someone will work out the year of this panto (1963?) and find the poster for the momentous event in Elvis's young life.